Travel Grants: an idea on how to save Van Slam 1000s of dollars

[Shannon]

As some of us know or not know, every year the money that is generated by Van Slam goes to various activities to promote spoken word.  The most expensive of which is sending the slam team to various festivals and competitions.  Unfortunately flights aren't getting any cheaper. So as I was researching how I personally can find grants for myself I stumbled onto something that might help out the slam.

Idea #1:  (Idea number 2 is next week )

The BC Arts Council has funds available for 'Travel Assistance'.  These awards cover half the cost of attending a festival or competition if they believe that the individual will learn from the experience.  I know that we often think that we are not at a level to receive these kinds of awards, but I assure you that the travel awards are the EASIEST to write and to get!  (I got one after I had only been performing for only a year to attend CFSW).  My award was about 900 dollars.  (It was MB arts council, but they are very similar).  I would be happy to help someone write a proposal (I used to do this for a living).   Not only does it make financial sense for Van Slam to encourage the team members to apply for these, but its also looks great on your ART CV!!!  Also, for anyone interested in apply for bigger and better grants in the future, receiving a travel grant is a step in the right direction. 

[Lisa]

I would be very interested in pursuing this for the slam, definitely.
It may be something that Sean has already looked into, though.

[Sean]

Maybe Chris could create a little fundraising section on the forum because I think Warren also had some ideas on raising money for the slam as well and we could have a little loop going. We could set up a small working committee and punch out a bunch of grants...it doesn't hurt, I figure. And maybe we'll get lucky. I can show everyone the Canada Council grant I filled out the last two years for the slam...

[admin]

Threads like this work well within the Van Slam category. If it's a very important discussion that we don't want to lose track of, then I'll sticky the thread so that it stays at the top of the forum.

[Shannon]

I would be very interested in pursuing this for the slam, definitely.
It may be something that Sean has already looked into, though.

Cool.

re: the slam master's role in this, it should be noted that the travel grants are for individual artists (unless you know something I do not) and are not given to teams.

But, a role a slam master could play (or someone entirely a little less already doing a million things for slam) could be to help walk some people through the proposal writing process.  I could help here actually if needed.

A role the slam master *could* play though is to look into how much money the slam family is really willing to pay considering there are travel grants available.  Maybe we as a group (slam family) could talk about this?   Because if everyone is eligible for travel grants from BC Arts Council than perhaps a way to save money could be making the tough decision to say 'okay everyone Van Slam will only pay 1/2 of your expenses to attend the nationals, but here are the links and resources so that you can go get some awesome awards to cover the other half.'  (And by the way I am not suggested that IF everyone applies and only 3 out of 5 receive the funds, than the other two should have to pay out of pocket.  No no.  Instead the money saved could be used to supplement the other team members that just weren't selected by the Arts Council that year IF they at least attempted to apply within reason.)

PS.  I'd be happy to get out my old travel grant to share and give a half hour chat about how to write these things in order to get travel money!  I had people in Manitoba sit down with me and I found it really helpful.

[Shannon]

ps.  i changed the subject title to make it more reflective of the topic at hand
feel free to change it back to the original if that makes more sense